The percentage of couples choosing to marry in 2023 in England and Wales fell by 9 percent compared to the previous year, according to new data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The drop followed a post-pandemic spike in the number of marriages in 2022, likely driven by weddings which had been postponed during lockdown. At the same time, civil partnerships rose in 2023 by almost the same percentage.
Kara Steel, from the ONS, explained that the fall in the number of marriages continues a long-term downward trend that began in the 1970s. Steel said: “The number of marriages has been steadily decreasing over the last 50 years, dropping 44 percent between 1973 and 2023.”
Steel added that “there was a post-pandemic spike in marriages in 2022, perhaps due to weddings postponed or delayed from lockdown, but 2023 saw a return to the overall trend of declining marriage”.
Overall, there were 231,949 marriages and civil partnerships in England and Wales in 2023, an 8.6 percent decrease from 2022.
There were 224,402 marriages in 2023, down from 246,897 in 2022 – a fall of 9.1 percent. Meanwhile, there were 7,547 civil partnerships in 2023 – up 9.7 percent from 6,879 in the previous year.
The director of research at the charity Marriage Foundation, Harry Benson, said the year-on-year decline in opposite-sex weddings “conceals the long tail of lockdown”, suggesting many of the couples whose weddings could not take place during lockdown might still not have rearranged their ceremonies.
Benson added: “That so many couples appear to have abandoned their wedding plans is incredibly sad for them, their friends and families. But it may also have a serious knock-on effect on commitment.”
Rebecca Wright and her partner Hannah chose a civil partnership in 2022. Wright, 30-year-old who lives in Black Country, said they chose a civil partnership because they didn’t want to be “husband and wife”.
Wright explained, “Three years later, my partner came out as transgender. It was not a surprise to me. We still wouldn’t want to be wives, though. We just like being known as partners”.
João Paulo Moura chose a civil partnership after he had difficulty obtaining a visa that would allow him to move in with his British partner in the UK. Paulo Moura, a 33-year-old from London, said the couple “travelled to Gibraltar and entered into a civil partnership”.
“We have the same civil rights as a married couple. However, we are planning to convert the partnership into a marriage. We are grateful for the civil partnership. However, we also appreciate the classical marriage status”.
Opposite-sex marriages remained the most common type of legal partnership formed in England and Wales in 2023, accounting for 93.5 percent of all partnerships (216,901).
The South East region of the country saw the highest numbers of marriages taking place in 2023, with 16.1 percent of marriages being
registered in the region. For civil partnerships, London was the most popular, with almost a quarter (1,847) of all those that took place in 2023.
London also had a 16.1 percent increase for same-sex civil partnerships and a 17.9 percent increase for opposite-sex civil partnerships in 2023, compared to 2022.
The average age at which people embarked on an opposite-sex marriage in 2023 remained among the highest recorded, at 34.8 years old for men and 33 years old for women.
For same-sex marriages, men were aged on average 37.4, while women were 34 years old, the ONS Demography team said, “supporting the trend of same-sex partners forming marriages at an older age than opposite-sex couples”.
For opposite-sex civil partnerships, men were aged 55.2 years old on average, while women were 52.9 years old. Same-sex couples entering civil partnerships tended to be slightly younger on average, with men on average 48.7 years old and women 42.5 years old.
While August remained the most popular month for people to get married, the most common day for weddings moved from summer nuptials in July to early autumnal celebrations on September 2.